Monday, May 23, 2016

Hey everyone! Monica is out of town on business so I'm popping in today to share some links to one of my favourite cookies to make at Christmas time--Sugar Cookies.

They aren't my favourite cookie but for some reason I just love them at Christmas time, especially when I use Christmas shaped cookie cutters to make them even more seasonal. Though, I'll be real honest and admit that I'm not much of a baker and with my time being so limited, I tend to purchase cookie mixes and pre-made frosting to whip up some of these yummy cookies much faster--I know, blasphemous to anyone who is a traditional baker.

Sugar cookies are relatively easy to make and most people will have all the ingredients needed on hand to whip up a batch. Traditional sugar cookies simply call for:

butter

sugar

a large egg

vanilla extract

baking powder

flour

Some recipes I've seen add a pinch of salt and others include baking soda along with baking powder.

You can decorate sugar cookies with a variety of different icings and of course sprinkles and other sorts of edible goodies.

Do you have a traditional family recipe that you make during the winter holiday season that you'd like to share with our readers during a future edition of 'Holiday Time Recipes'? If so, please contact us at the_12_moc_linkup {at} outlook {dot} com (don't forget to replace 'at' and 'dot' with the appropriate symbols) to discuss the possibility.

Well, that is it for this one folks! Don't forget to get your Christmas cards linked up before the end of May. As always, linking up two cards will earn you a free digi paper and if you follow this month's optional theme of Non-traditional Christmas Colours, you have the chance to win a prize from our sponsor, The Stamping Boutique!

Sunday, May 15, 2016

We have reached the midway point of Challenge #17. Unfortunately, I've got some more bad news to share. Christine, one of our Merry Maidens, has also left us effective immediately, due to some family issues. Like Sheena, Christine was only here for a short time but we were very lucky to have her during that time. As all my team members, she made beautiful cards and her talents will be missed. I would ask that you please join me in wishing Christine all the best as she moves on!

Now, it is time to see what the Merry Maidens have been up to with their images from The Stamping Boutique
and Glitterbabe Stamps (selling out of The Stamping Boutique Store), our guest co-sponsors for this month!

Check out the lovely images that the team worked with this
month for the midway of the challenge. Clicking on the watermarks below will
take you to their location in the store.

#243 Natalie

#600 Nativity

#745 Bethlehem

While team members had the option of working with any of my Décosse's
Dynamite Doodles papers, I ended up creating two special sets this
month. Given that the optional theme is Non-traditional Christmas
Colours, I decided to make some Bokeh papers. The first set is a
multicolour set and the second is a set of solid colour papers. Check
out the previews (you can click on them to bring them up in the lightbox
to get a larger view)...

Everyone who links up a minimum of two cards during the month of May will earn ONE of the digital papers from one of these sets. The specific paper
up for grabs will be shown during the winner announcement post.
Additionally, one random winner will earn their choice of which full set of papers they'd like.

Have your say in determining which paper will be offered to those who
link up a minimum of two cards this month by completing the poll in the
sidebar on the top right hand side.

Now
check out what the Merry Maidens came up with to inspire you.
Clicking
on
the names will take you to the individual blogs where you can check
out the details for all these wonderful cards.

So if you haven't entered already, what are you waiting for? It is
time to link up your Christmas and other holiday cards for May.
Whether you choose to link up two Anything Goes themed cards simply to
earn your free paper this month, or you choose to also follow the
optional theme to have a chance at the sponsor's prize, it is completely
up to you!

Here is a refresher of the details for this challenge...

Please remember that this is a CARDS ONLY link up. While we've
had some lovely tag entries in the past, we've sadly had to disqualify them.

Challenge #17

Optional Theme:Non-traditional Christmas Colours

One of the things that I love about Christmas is that it is so rich in
colours. While the holiday season is known for its bright reds,
brilliant greens and sparkling golds and silvers, there are many other
wonderful colours that can represent Christmas just as beautifully.

In
order to
have a chance to win the prize from our wonderful guest
sponsor this month, make sure that your card uses a selection of non traditional Christmas colours. It is time to bring out the blues, pinks, purples or other
non-traditional colour palettes and give your Christmas project a
different kind of hue. If you do follow
the optional theme, be sure to add FT after your name so that
we include you in the draw for the prize.

Remember, you don't need to follow the theme to link up your
cards and earn a free paper each month, and have your name
thrown into the year end draw for some extra digital goodies.
You only need to follow the theme if you want a chance to win
this month's sponsored prize of 2 digital stamps from The
Stamping Boutique (3 if your card features a stamp from The Stamping
Boutique or one from Glitterbabe).

If you are new to this unique challenge, you can find out the impetus behind why I started it under the 'Introductions'
tab. As this is a unique kind of link up where we have both an
anything goes Christmas option and an optional theme to follow, be sure
to read all the details and rules you need to know in order to
participate, by checking out the 'Challenge Details' tab (both tabs located at the top of the blog).

You can find the Challenge Details Summary along with the link up for Challenge #17 by clicking HERE.

Don't Forget, if everything goes according to plan...

Be sure to join us next weekwhen Monica will be here to share a Christmas recipe with you all.

Then hopefully I will get the winner announcement for Challenge #16 posted.

Next up it will be time for our new challenge to start on June 1st.

Pat will hopefully be back in June to share a tradition with all of you.

Then, the winners from Challenge #17 will hopefully be posted on June 8th.

Other special posts may be published throughout the month. Be sure
to sign up to have our posts delivered by email or follow us through
Bloglovin' so you don't miss a thing!

Sunday, May 08, 2016

Mel C., you are the winner of a $12.00 gift certificate from A Day For Daisies, our guest sponsor for March (chosen by Mini Web Tool), based on all eligible participants (i.e., those entrants who followed the optional theme).

Mel C., please send an email to the_12_moc_linkup {at} outlook {dot} com (or click HERE
to bring the address up in your email program), with the subject, "12MoC Challenge #15 WINNER"
to make arrangements to receive your prize. Please note that it may take me several
days to get back to you. Thank you for your patience. In the interim, please grab a copy of the winner badge below for your blog.

Next, it is time to get on with showcasing the top three.
With so many wonderful entries to choose from, it is always such a difficult
task for the
design team. We did however settle on three awesome creations. So,
without further ado, here are our Stocking Stuffers for Challenge #15:

Congrats to our top three Stocking Stuffers! Plony, Wies and Rosina, please grab a copy of the badge below for your blog.

Everyone who links up two cards
each month is eligible to receive a free digital paper. All those who linked up two cards
during the month of February were mailed their paper. If you thought
that you had linked two, but did not receive it, please contact us and
let us know and we'll look into it for you.

The individuals
who linked
up a minimum of two cards each this month,
qualifying them to receive the digital paper from MARCH will receive
the paper with the ringing bells which
garnered 60% of
the votes. I
have included the watermark of it, below...

To all of you
who linked up during March, thanks ever so much! We are so happy to
have all of you
with us and hope that you'll continue to link up your holiday cards
throughout 2016!!!

Papers will be sent to the email address that qualifying participants
used when they added their cards to the Link Up. I hope to get them
mailed by the 15th. Your patience is appreciated.

As always, we are going to have a
random draw from all the entries and give out the set of six digital papers to
one lucky individual. The papers are all made so why not have an extra
prize! Here is the watermark for the full set..

Rainey, please send an email to the_12_moc_linkup {at} outlook {dot} com (or click HERE
to bring the address up in your email program), with the subject, "Holiday Decorations Set Winner"
to make arrangements to receive your prize. Please note that it may take me several
days to get back to you. Thank you for your patience.

Well folks, that is it for today. While you are here, please be sure to
check out the details for our current challenge going on now (if you
haven't already), with the Optional Theme this month of "Non Traditional Christmas Colours". You can find out all the details along with the link up, by clicking HERE.

Also, be sure to join us on May 15th, for our midway post where you'll get to see cards created by the Merry Maidens!
Then during the third week of the month, Monica will hopefully be here
to share a holiday recipe with you all.
Did you catch Pat's post on a Holiday Tradition she shared? If not, you can find it HERE. Other special posts may be published throughout the month.
Be sure
to sign up to have our posts delivered by email or follow us through
Bloglovin' so you don't miss a thing!

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Hello everyone! I'm popping in today to share a Holiday
Tradition from Pat, one of our Merry Maidens! This time around Pat is
sharing another special family tradition that she and her husband started with their children--something that will speak to the child in all of us! This is such a fabulous idea and maybe one that you can pass on and share with your own families with small children! I hope that you enjoy reading about Pat's special
tradition as much as I did!

SCIS: Santa Came
Investigation Services

While Santa is much too experienced to leave evidence of
his home invasions, my children were starting to doubt at an early age. The
half-eaten cookies routine was getting old, so I had to form the SCIS (like the
TV show NCIS), which stands for Santa
Came Investigation Services.
The kids were thrilled to be detectives the morning after Christmas, and gave
mom and dad a chance to actually drink their morning coffee before the wrapping
paper went flying.

The first year we set a “trap” by making reindeer food.
The recipe is simple: mix a ¼ cup of oats with a teaspoon of glitter. On
Christmas Eve, spread the “feed” over the lawn. Whether there’s snow or not
matters not, the glitter sparkles in the light from lamp posts and Christmas
lights. The kids were positive the reindeer would stay in front of the house
long enough for them to catch Santa at his game. Unfortunately, the kids were
just too sleepy to stay awake, and mom’s camera needed charging, so we talked
about plans for next year as we enjoyed Christmas morning. Overnight a light
snow fell and the oats and glitter weren’t visible any more.

The second year the kids forgot all about SCIS until they
woke Christmas morning to discover that Santa had left “magical” footprints on
the carpet, magical because the snow hadn’t melted (made by shaking talcum or
baking powder around a pair of boots, then returning said boots to closet).
That morning we all talked about what we loved about the holidays as we opened
our presents. The kids said that Santa must be slipping since they found his
footprints.

The next year, Santa really slipped up. When the kids
woke up Christmas morning, we heard shouts from the sliding glass door near our
kitchen. Santa left so quickly, his pants got stuck in the door and he didn’t
have time to rescue them! We all laughed as we imagined what he did after our
house. The kids’ answers were funny and creative, ranging from his having extra
pairs of pants in his sleigh to a pair being parachuted in from the North Pole
by Mrs. Claus.

Throughout the years of belief and doubts and disbelief,
the kids continued to look for clues at Santa’s “crime scenes” just for the fun
of it. A family tradition had been born. So when my son married and had his own
children, he and his wife took the tradition into the 21st century, re-creating
their own SCIS every Christmas morning for their kids. To this day, Santa
continues the legend as he leaves little bits of evidence for the grandchildren
to discover, even at Grandma’s house. And to this day, Santa has never been
caught, but his clues lead us all on a merry chase of wonder and belief.

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Hello and welcome to The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up.
It is a brand new month and time for our next challenge to get under
way! Remember that prophecy I made last month about being perpetually behind one month in my Winner Announcement posts? Well, sadly that trend is continuing. Unfortunately, I lost almost the entire month of April to a rather nasty virus which has put me even farther behind! So, I continue to appreciate your patience while I try to get things back on track.

Before I continue, I must share that Sheena has decided to leave us. The May
challenge will be her last one. In the short time that Sheena has been on the team, she has definitely made an impression. She is an incredibly talented card maker and she will definitely be missed! Please join me in wishing
Sheena all the best as she moves on to new adventures in her crafting
life!

Now let's get on with the new challenge...

The Basics

While you can find out ALL the information you need to know in order to participate in the challenge by checking out the 'Challenge Details' tab at the top of the page (or by clicking HERE), here is a refresher of the basics.

Anyone can link up as many Christmas and/or December holiday themed cards (including Happy New Year's cards)throughout
the month with an ANYTHING GOES theme.

Every person who has linked up a MINIMUM of
two (2) cards will be eligible to
receive a specially designed Christmas themed digital paper.

Each month there will be an OPTIONAL theme to follow. Anyone who submits a card adhering to the monthly theme,
will have the chance to win a prize from that month's guest sponsor.

Every holiday card you submit to the link up, earns you one chance to win a
special digital Christmas kit that will be offered up after the year is
complete.

Now that the basics are out of the way, how about we get on with the details of Challenge #17.

Challenge #17

Optional Theme:Non-traditional Christmas Colours

One of the things that I love about Christmas is that it is so rich in
colours. While the holiday season is known for its bright reds,
brilliant greens and sparkling golds and silvers, there are many other
wonderful colours that can represent Christmas just as beautifully.

In
order to
have a chance to win the prize from our wonderful guest
sponsor this month, make sure that your card uses a selection of non traditional Christmas colours. It is time to bring out the blues, pinks, purples or other
non-traditional colour palettes and give your Christmas project a
different kind of hue. If you do follow
the optional theme, be sure to add FT after your name so that
we include you in the draw for the prize.

Remember, you don't need to follow the theme to link up your
cards and earn a free paper each month, and have your name
thrown into the year end draw for some extra digital goodies.
You only need to follow the theme if you want a chance to win
this month's sponsored prize of 2 digital stamps from The
Stamping Boutique (3 if your card features a stamp from The Stamping
Boutique or one from Glitterbabe).

This month's sponsorship is actually a combination of The Stamping Boutique
and Glitterbabe Stamps (selling out of The Stamping Boutique Store).
As such, I'll present a refresher of what Tracey's company is all about
as TSB has been a previous sponsor, and then I will introduce you to Glitterbabe Stamps...

Thank you so much for having us as your
sponsor. We at TSB are very proud to offer original digital images and
artwork to you. Thank you for giving us a few minutes of your valuable
time to look over the store at http://thestampingboutique.com. Good luck in the challenge and we hope to see you over at our TSB Community network: http://thestampingboutique.ning.com.

Thanks so much!Tracey Malnofski

hi. i'm glitterbabe... or sometimes known as stef h. i started doing
digis on a dare from my hubby ages ago. he had more faith in my
drawings than i had myself. anyway, i played and got to liking it so
thanks to tracey malnofski of THE STAMPING BOUTIQUE, i managed to get my
images "out there." you can find them at THE STAMPING BOUTIQUE STORE
and i sure hope you have as much fun with them as i have.

Check out the great images the team worked with for their projects for
the beginning of this challenge. Clicking on the watermarks below will
take you to their location in the store.

#243 Natalie

#600 Nativity

#745 Bethlehem

One of our team members chose to use an image that she already had...

#54 Snowman's Laundry Line

While team members had the option of working with any of my Décosse's
Dynamite Doodles papers, I ended up creating two special sets this month. Given that the optional theme is Non-traditional Christmas Colours, I decided to make some Bokeh papers. The first set is a multicolour set and the second is a set of solid colour papers. Check out the previews (you can click on them to bring them up in the lightbox to get a larger view)...

Everyone who links up a minimum of two cards during the month of May will earn ONE of the digital papers from one of these sets. The specific paper
up for grabs will be shown during the winner announcement post.
Additionally, one random winner will earn their choice of which full set of papers they'd like.

Have your say in determining which paper will be offered to those who
link up a minimum of two cards this month by completing the poll in the
sidebar on the top right hand side.

Now
check out what the Sleigh Belles came up with to inspire you.
Clicking on
the names will take you to the individual blogs where you can check
out the details for all these wonderful cards...

So what are you waiting for? It is time to link up your Christmas and
other holiday cards for May! Whether you choose to link up two
Anything Goes themed cards simply to earn your free paper this month, or
you choose to also follow the optional theme to have a chance at the sponsor's
prize, it is completely up to you!

If you are new to this unique challenge, you can find out the impetus behind why I started it under the 'Introductions' tab and all the details you need to know in order to participate, in the 'Challenge Details' tab (both tabs located at the top of the blog).

We have a packed month as usual; so, Monica and I and the rest of the gang hope to see you back with us soon!

Join us on May 5th when Pat will be here to share a holiday tradition with us all.

Then on May 8th, we hope to publish the names of the
winners and top
picks from Challenge #15.

Be sure to join us again on May 15th, for our midway post where you'll get to see cards created by the Merry Maidens!

Then during the third week of May, Monica should be here to share a Christmas recipe with us all.

Other special posts may be published throughout the month. Be sure
to sign up to have our posts delivered by email or follow us through
Bloglovin' so you don't miss a thing!

CHALLENGE DETAILS SUMMARY
Each month we'll include a summary of details for the particular
challenge taking place. If you are new, please be sure to familiarize
yourself with all the details and rules in the
'Challenge Details' tab at the top of the page. Please note that dates and times listed below are for
this particular challenge only:

Cards for this challenge will be accepted from 6:00 p.m. (18:00 hrs), May 1st - 11:55 p.m. (23:55 hrs), May 31st, 2016.

If you wish to receive the free digi paper being offered up for this month, you need to link up a minimum of two (2) Christmas or holiday themed cards.

This is NOT a progressive challenge. You can jump in at any time.

You can link up as many holiday themed cards as you want as long as each entry is with a new project. HOWEVER, if you decide to follow the optional theme of Non-traditional Christmas Colours(see specific details above), only a maximum of three (3) entries will qualify for the draw for this month's prize of 2 digital stamps from The
Stamping Boutique.You must add 'FT' after you name so we know which cards to add to the random draw for the sponsor's prize.

No backlinking.

Make sure when entering your project that you mention The 12 Months
of Christmas Link Up in your post with a link back to this blog.

Please remember to link directly to your blog post where we can see
your creation, and not just the generic link to your blog. Only permalinks are accepted.

If I can somehow manage to catch up this month, the winners and top picks for this challenge (#17) will hopefully be announced on June 8th in a special post.

Please help spread the word by grabbing our badge, adding it to your blog and linking it to ours.

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Welcome!

Hello and welcome to The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up. You'll find everything you need to know about this challenge blog, how to play and more, by checking out the different pages at the top of the blog.

We hope that you'll consider joining us! We can't wait to see your creations!

Lisa and Pat

If you ever have any questions, please feel free to contact us by email: the_12_moc_linkup {at] outlook [dot] com.

Thanks so much to Sandy S. from Scribbles Designs who has generously allowed us to use her images in the design of our badges and watermarks. Please be sure to go and check out her store. Clicking on the badge will take you there.

Looking for Fabulous Blogwear?! Well look no further than Imagine That. Thanks to Kris B. for creating this beautiful blogwear for us. You too can have unique backgrounds! Be sure to check out Imagine That's line of incredible free blogwear. Clicking on the badge will take you the blogwear section of the store.

Current Challenge

Challenges go live the 1st of each month generally at 6:00 p.m., EST. Please click HERE to go to the current challenge. Linking two cards each month earns you a free digi paper and a chance to win other goodies at the end of the year. Follow the optional theme for a chance to win a prize from our monthly guest sponsor.

Challenge Winners

Are you a lucky winner or part of the top three in Challenge #29? Click HERE to find out. If you missed the results of Challenge #28, click HERE. For all other previous challenges click HERE.